Morning MarketBeat: Signs of Calm in Europe’s Markets

MARKET SNAP: At 6:30 a.m. ET, S&P 500 futures down 0.1%. Nymex up at $85.96; gold up at $1,714.20. In Europe, FTSE 100 up 0.7%, DAX up 0.9% and CAC 40 up 0.8%. In Asia, Nikkei 225 down 1% and Hang Seng down 0.4%.

But CME Group, headquartered well inland in Chicago, is keeping equity-index futures open overnight; they’ll shut Tuesday morning at 8:15 a.m. Central Time, or 1:15 p.m. in London. At around 9:45 a.m. London time, both S&P and Dow futures were off only slightly—each down 0.3%.

Other signs of calm: crude-oil futures were barely changed, the euro is up modestly against the dollar. Equity markets in Europe are positive Tuesday morning, thanks to a slate of solid earnings reports. Among them are oil giant BP PLC, up 5.2%, and Deutsche Bank AG, which gained 3.7%. UBS AG is up 5% after announcing a reorganization plan that will shave 10,000 workers off its 64,000 staff. European insurance stocks are higher after a tough day Monday.

Expect light volumes again Tuesday—and a nervous wait to see what happens when markets reopen (if indeed they do) on Wednesday.

Here’s a rundown of what’s open and closed.

U.S. equity markets are shut. Equity-index futures remained open overnight Monday to Tuesday, but they’ll shut Tuesday morning at 9:15 a.m. New York time and will remain closed Tuesday, according to CME Group. CME’s interest-rate futures will remain open Tuesday.

U.S. bond markets are also generally shut Tuesday, and SIFMA, the association that coordinates market-opening times among financial firms, recommends that firms also shut trading of U.S.-dollar government securities in Tokyo and London Tuesday.

So, be patient.

Morning MarketBeat Daily Factoid: On this day in 1991, the Perfect Storm hit the North Atlantic. The Andrea Gail and its crew were lost in the storm. The best selling book, “The Perfect Stom” and the movie of the same name were based storm and story of the Andrea Gail.

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